Understanding coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk perceptions among the public to enhance risk communication efforts: a practical approach for outbreaks, Finland, February 2020

Abstract

Understanding risk perceptions of the public is critical for risk communication. In February 2020, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare started collecting weekly qualitative data on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk perception that informs risk communication efforts. The process is based on thematic analysis of emails and social media messages from the public and identifies factors linked to appraisal of risk magnitude, which are developed into risk communication recommendations together with health and communication experts.

Perceptions of Risk of Attending Hospital During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A UK Public Opinion Survey

“…The high perception of risk in attending Accident and Emergency (A&E), is notable and in line with recent ndings (5). These results mirror what has been observed nationally with dramatic reduction in attendance to A&E and emergency admissions, April saw a staggering 57% drop compared to the same month in 2019 (7).…”

“…As some of the most interesting ndings pertain to groups under-represented in the sample it follows that further research into the thoughts and feelings of BAME communities and women would be informative. The patterns of risk perception suggest there may be complex processes underpinning individual assessment of risk, widely recognised as subjective (5), which might be explored more with qualitative research methodology. Focus groups are underway to explore this, and vaccine study recruitment, in more depth so diverse perspective can support both clinical and research activity post-COVID-19.…”

“…Public involvement improves the quality and relevance of research, (3) and though rapid escalation of research considering COVID-19 makes involvement more challenging these bene ts are worth retaining. Public involvement can help researchers understand public perception of risk as the driver of a range of pandemic-related behaviours, (4) such as compliance with lockdown requirements, adoption of protective measures like mask wearing and social distancing, and wider engagement with services including health, screening, social care and education and therefore support communication efforts (5).…”

Letter to the editor: Evidence on school closure and children’s social contact: useful for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)?

“…Therefore, findings based on geographically and temporally limited school closures may be poorly informative for a pandemic at the scale of COVID-19 and consequent temporally extended school closures. This is the case because risk perception of children and also of their parents (other factors that Brooks and colleagues found related to the respect of social isolation [1]) is clearly different in the two scenarios and therefore also adherence to social isolation is probably different [5]. In this perspective, one of the main conclusions of the review, i.e.…”

Perceptions of Risk of Attending Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a UK patient and public survey and focus groups

“…Public involvement improves the quality and relevance of research (3), and, though rapid escalation of research considering COVID-19 makes involvement more challenging, these bene ts are worth retaining. Public involvement can help researchers understand public perception of risk as the driver of a range of pandemic-related behaviours (4), such as compliance with lockdown requirements, adoption of protective measures like mask wearing and social distancing, and wider engagement with services including health, screening, social care and education and therefore support communication efforts (5).…”